Author: Mari

Sometime this week I wandered by the New York Avenue Station and noticed something new for me, bike racks. And even better, bike lockers.

When I peered through the window I saw chairs, so it must be a restaurant. Anyway, there is a new restaurant at 600 Florida Avenue. Since the inside is somewhat visable it seems far more inviting than what was there before.

At some point I hope to try the Lamb Shish Kabob or the Mouska. And as the name says they have chicken as well as the kabobs.

According to the take out menu they deliver for free. So anyway feel free to drop by or give them a call at 202 232 1165.

I made a huge error.

Nobody died.

Just apparently if you OD, are unresponsive, and lying on the sidewalk with blood coming out of your head and mouth the proper authorities will take their time getting you to the hospital.

I am sorry to all who I have upset. My source of information was faulty and upon confering with other people I have discovered my error and wish to correct myself.

So I repeat no one died.

What happened according to a neighbor who lives closer and who actually found the woman on the side walk, she was bleeding from her head and mouth and was unresponsive. The people in the house where the trail of blood began had locked her out and were inside when the police came and knocked on the door, but they did not answer. It is possible that she could have died from her injuries, but as far as we know, she’s still alive.

via Jim Berry

Neighbors,

I am advised that the Board of Directors of the North Capitol Collaborative will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, February 17, 2005, from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., at McKinley High School, 151 T Street, NE.

As you may know the Collaborative is principally responsible for working with abused and neglected children in our community, as well as their families.

The purpose of the town hall meeting is to give a progress report to the community on the work of the collaborative and the public is invited to come out in order to let their voices be heard about the group’s work. For more information concerning this meeting, you may contact Ms. LaShawn Gantt @ 202-299-9802.

Best,

Jim Berry

ANC 5C

Today on freecycle someone in Adams Morgan is giving away a big wooden door with a window in it, just to give you a heads up.

Second, a former house of the week has begun to show some activity as construction stopped and now has started again. After serveral months of nothing, there is a for sale sign and stairs are now going up, just adding to the ugly. There was a way to make it look nicer, but would have cost money or forethought. Maybe I might be pleasantly suprised and the end result might look nice. But given this neighborhood and the crap I’ve seen, no.

Price: $619,000

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 3

Basement: Yes, finished

Fireplaces: 2 or 3

I was disappointed. But houses around a certain amount I have great expectations. Expectations that are dashed by the small things one notice as a homeowner that might go missed as a 1st time homebuyer.

First thing I noticed was in the bathroom. This was a blah, functional bathroom. No attempt to wow me. Regular Home Depot tub, with other regular stuff, but then I noticed the shower head. The thing wasn’t flush with the wall in that I could see the hole from where the pipe came from and it wasn’t caulked up or anything. This could allow water to get back behind the wall causing an expensive repair. This I noticed from the bathroom door.

The first floor of the main unit was fairly, ok. As I said, no wow, pretty much allowing me to believe that the money one would pay for the house is just location and not the house itself. I mean the wood floors were nice but, for $619K I would expect a little more care in how the house was fixed up.

Click here for image of upstairs

When I went up the stairs I noticed some problems with the wood work were problems were painted over. Sad. Sad because the house does have so much potential. If whoever was fixing it up had just taken a little bit more time with it and took care of the little details that would have made it look better….*sigh*. Anyway there were exposed brick bedrooms and small bedrooms with fireplaces. Do they work? Unknown, but they look nice. The house gets a decent amount of light.



The basement is supposed to be a legal rental unit. It has all one would expect from a finished basement, kitchen, living area, bedroom, full bath and damp. I noticed the problem near the bottom of the walls. The paint was bubbling away from the walls. A few dehumidifiers might help. Or not. But keeping water and dampness out of this basement might be cause for concern.

Should one buy this house? Oh, yes, but not at the price given. One would have to take something off the price to address the issues of damp and fixing the minor things.

Pruning Workshop for All Feb 26th!

Tree Pruning Workshop

Saturday, February 26th, 10 A.M.

Seaton Elementary School

(10th and P Streets, NW)

D.C. Greenworks will be leading a FREE training workshop for all of our

TreeKeepers in the Shaw community as well as other residents interested

in becoming TreeKeepers this spring.

Come learn how to prune young trees and identify the most common

species in the neighborhood. Then you can take your new skills back to your block

and prune your own trees.

Please contact us with any questions. We hope to see you there!

RSVP by phone at 518-6195 or email at trees@dcgreenworks.org.

(Rain date: Sunday, Feb. 27th, 1 P.M.)

Bethie Miller

Community Outreach Organizer

D.C. Greenworks

2451 18th Street, NW 2nd floor

Washington, D.C. 20009

202-518-6195

202-518-5507 fax

I won’t be attending this month’s Bates Area Civic Association meeting at Mt. Sinai because of prior commitments. If anyone out there does go, please reply or tell me what went on, especially if the police show up and mention a person being found dead this weekend.

MONTHLY MEETING NOTICE

Featured Topics for the Evening Include:

The DC Comprehensive Plan

Public Safety in the Community

John F. Cook School Library Initiative

Mini-Grant Application for Garden Resources of Washington

Monday, February 7, 2005

Mount Sinai Baptist Church

3rd and Q Streets, N.W.

Rooms 1 and 2

7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

For more information regarding the meeting and/or the Association,

contact Jim Berry at (202) 387-8520

2/8/2005 Correction: The person described in this post did not die. I repeat, did not die. I was wrong. What happened according to a neighbor who lives closer and who actually found the woman on the side walk, she was bleeding from her head and mouth and was unresponsive. The people in the house where the trail of blood began had locked her out and were inside when the police came and knocked on the door, but they did not answer. It is possible that she could have died from her injuries, but as far as we know, she’s still alive.

I was planning on writing about my exciting morning shopping at National Warehouse Liquidators and spending way too much money at a garden store on seeds, seeds! Yet apparently something far more interesting has happened on my block. One of my neighbors found a dead body lying on the sidewalk.

What do I know about the body?

I know Jack squat. I didn’t know there was a problem until I noticed the flashing lights outside my window. Even then I didn’t give it too much thought. For the past month the fire department and EMS van have been on my street for one thing or another. Usually carting off some talking, breathing resident for one age related ailment or another. Seeing where the truck and van parked themselves on the street I figured a) domestic disturbance b) chemical OD or c)sickness due to unhealthy living. So I didn’t really think anything was that amiss when there was a crowd of paramedics and cops around the person lying on the sidewalk.

I am about 5-6 doors down from the body so as far I could tell they could have been talking to and treating the person. Nope. I knew there was something wrong when the 5th cop car drove up and when the paramedic came out with a huge jug of bleach (I could smell it) and poured it over the sidewalk and hosed it down.

The police interviewed some of the neighbors who came out (flashing lights can do that). My interview was short.

Policeman: Did you hear or see anything?

Me: No. I must have been in the basement.

That was it. I am a worthless witness. I was in the basement and when I was upstairs I was on the phone, if I did hear anything I ignored it along with the hammering from the illegal contract work in the alley.

The police did knock on the door of the house where the dead person may have been visiting, but no one answered the door.

The body couldn’t have been out there long. I was over near that house just 2 hours before, chatting with neighbors and joking about being an axe murderer (if anyone want to check my hatchet, knock yourself out). After not being to do any digging in the yard because the ground is still frozen I came back into the house. A couple of hours later, body.

How do I feel? Eh. I’m alive. Until I hear otherwise, it could be one of those killings where the victim knew their killer. So I don’t feel any sense of fear or anxiety. Also I didn’t discover the body. That helps. My mom who works in an old folks home, where because of their age, old folks die, is still bothered by finding a dead patient she found last week. It may have been a different story if I found the body.